Tales of the Blades: Beginnings 'Arc'
by Lixie Lorn
Summary: This story, from tales of the Blades, is the story of how the Blaemaster families came about. Read this if you want only that story. T for gore and language.
1. Tales 1: Beginnings 1: The Meeting

Hiya people

_Hiya people. Felix here. And Ebony. This is going to be a strange story. Each chapter might be from a different story. Chapter 1 might be from one story, 2 from another, and 3 from the first again. But I'll keep that clearly marked. This first chapter begins the arc known only as 'beginnings'. Enjoy._

(I hate the) disclaimer: I do not own pokemon. I own the characters and their names, except for Jaster, which belongs to guard of the twilight. The Blademaster families are an idea which we should probably share credit for.

Tales of the Blade Chapter 1-Beginnings: The Meeting

"Well, I expect you're wondering why we're here." said a man, standing on a small platform. They were in an impressive garden, trees, lakes and plants. Wild pokemon were everywhere. But the centre of attention was focussed on the man. His name was Alan Jaster, and he had black hair, blue eyes, and a large sword on his back, as well as a smaller one in his belt. He was the founder of the sword fighting Discipline of Inner Strength, though most referred to it as the discipline style.

"Yes, we are." yelled out a woman. She looked about the same age. She had two swords in her belt, long brown hair and brown eyes. Her name was Lauren Lorn, creator of the Speed Discipline.

"I wouldn't have come if I knew HE was going to be here…" muttered another man, with blonde hair and green eyes and a strong build and a wicked looking sword, throwing a dirty look at another man who looked completely different, black haired, almost black eyed and very slim, wearing a single very long sword on his back, and a long dagger on his belt. They were Sam Rofani, founder of the Power Discipline, and Alex Sonai, the creator of the Intimidation Discipline.

The fifth person remained silent. He was James Verin, a brown haired, green eyed Swordsmaster who had always been the quietest and most sensible. He was the creator of the Defence Discipline, and wore two swords on his back so perfectly alike they were like mirrors.

When the talking died down, Alan continued.

"So do I." he continued. There was almost an uproar, impressive as that is from four people, but he continued. "As the only one of us on speaking terms with the rest, I was asked to bring you all here."  
"Who BY?" shouted out Sam.  
"Mew." There was silence.  
"You're joking." said Sam.  
"I'm not. She- or he- should be here any minute now" he said, getting down from the stage and sitting on the fifth chair.

"And that's my cue!" came a loud voice from nowhere. There was a loud pop, and a flash of bright pink light, and Mew appeared on the stage. She giggled, summoning a chair from nowhere and sat down.  
"No, wait, that hurts my tail. And this is awkward anyway… Got it!" she murmured. There was another pink flash, and Mew was a young woman, with bright pink hair and bright blue eyes. She giggled again and sat down.

"Well, you all know why you're here."

"No we don't." said Lauren.  
"Didn't I tell you?" said mew, surprised.  
"No." she said.  
"Oh." Mew giggles. "Must have slipped my mind. Anyways, I asked you here because you are the five greatest Swordsmasters, and each of you comes from a different region. Now, we legendaries have a problem."  
"Get on with it, Mew." came another voice. With a flash of green light another figure appeared. It looked like a human boy, with light green hair and darker eyes.  
"I'm Celebi." he said.  
"Is that ALL of you, or are their more pixies to come?" said Lauren.  
"There are more, but not here. I'm sorry; Mew has a tendency to go on a bit. Some… thing has got into our world. We don't know quite what it is, but it shouldn't be here.  
We've both tried to find out, but it's blocking our more special abilities. We need you five, if you will, to do this for us."

They looked around at each other. There were a few moans of "Does it have to be HIM?", but they eventually died down.

"We'll do it." said Alan Jaster of Sinnoh.

There was silence.

"What exactly are we doing?" he asked.  
"There are some… things in Altomare. I presume you all know of Altomare?"  
They nodded.  
"Good. We can't get a look at them psychically, and what we like to call 'god powers' don't work near them, so no time travel checks. We daren't go alone, and the other legends can't help. We can teleport there." The group nodded. It made sense. It hadn't quite clicked that two gods were asking for help.

"Ok then!" said Mew, brightly smiling. "Hold my hand. Or Celebi's." Grudgingly, slightly annoyed with Mew's honeyed attitude, they did, and when the five warriors were touching the legends, there was a twin flash of pink and green, and the garden vanished, to be replaced by a sight if possible, more beautiful. A rolling city of canals and ancient buildings. Celebi closed his eyes as they started to glow.

"That way." He said, opening them and pointing. Mew had stopped smiling now. Seriousness didn't fit her face at all. They started to run, unsheathing their weapons. It wasn't long before they saw what was going on. A group of pokemon were attacking people and buildings, defeating attacking pokemon almost as if they were nothing. There was a Kabutops, an Arcanine, a Sneasel, a Girafarig and an Aerodactyl. But each one was strange-it was entirely black, with spikes all over it. The Arcanine had a pair of horns, the Kabutops' shell was covered in spikes all over, the Sneasel had claws as long as it was tall, the Girafarig had five tails, each tipped with a horned demonic head, and the Aerodactyl had a tail tipped with a mace so large and powerful it was demolishing walls. They charged in without a second thought, weapons glinting.

Alan got there first, swinging his swords at the Kabutops. Somehow, it turned and blocked them, even though it was looking the other way. It swung one blade, hard, knocking Alan off balance when he blocked, and threw a second attack at him. He barely dodged it, diving onto the floor. He grabbed a pokeball from his belt.  
"Jolteon!" the electric dog pokemon materialised.  
"Thunder!" The Jolteon grinned, and a huge blast of lightning shot towards the Kabutops. It struck, and the creature started to smoke. But it still stood. With a contemptuous strike, Jolteon was on the floor, unconscious. Quickly, Alan threw his pokeball, recovering Jolteon. He just finished as Kabutops swung a blade again, and he ducked quickly, rolling out of the way. He grabbed a spare pokeball from his bag, throwing it at the Kabutops. It struck the pokemon, and glowed red, than black, then shattered. He stood still for a second, shocked, until another blade swung and he remembered to dodge. Two loud voices echoed through the street.  
"Purity Wave!"

Lauren was having similar problems. Roll under when triple claw, dodge the next. She barely had time to attack. Didn't stop her. Dodge, attack, duck, lunge, spin out of the way, slash. She was desperately trying to think of some way to defeat it. She jumped forwards over both attacks, slashing with both swords in a move that should have cut it into three. It blocked. Impossible. Nothing was faster than her. She had defeated Sneasels, Weaviles, Scythers, even a Ninjask. It pushed against her, throwing her backwards. She grabbed a pokeball from her belt.

"Scyther!" she said. The Ninja pokemon appeared, and looking around, saw what to do. The Scyther charged with Lauren, each attacking at the same time, lightning fast Lauren hit first, striking out with both blades. Its arm caught them pushing them away, and throwing her to the floor. Scyther arrived, a Hellblade charged with fire ready to strike. Its other arm blocked the attack, and the backswing from its defence against Lauren crashed into Scyther's arm. He was thrown away, arm bleeding heavily. If he didn't have tough armour, he would probably have lost the arm. Lauren returned him. And just then, two loud voices echoed through the street.  
"Purity Wave!"

Sam drew his huge, huge sword, and charged at the Arcanine. It growled, like thunder, and lowered its head, charging with horns outstretched. The two met quickly, the giant sword hitting the helmet like bone on the Arcanine's head, just stopping the horns before they reached him. He pushed the strange pokemon away, swinging his sword both handed. A paw came up, grabbing the blade. Blood dripped from the pokemon's paw as it pushed the weapon away.  
This was impossible. He was the founder of the Strength Discipline. How could it be this strong? He needed a plan. He scowled. He hated it when that happened. But as he was trying to think, as the Arcanine approached, their came a loud cry.  
"Purity Wave!"

Alex had both his weapons out. A long sword, the end curving into a dagger, and a long knife. Neither were helping against the Girafarig and it's five tails. It was walking forwards, but the tails were stretching, like scorpions, and attacking. He knew that this thing could not be scared. So what the hell was he going to do? He closed his eyes, searching for his inner powers. He opened them, and he changed, growing wings, horns, a long forked tail, the whole thing. The Girafarig laughed. He flew over it, circling and then moving into a steep dive, sword outstretched. It whipped all its tails out, slashing them across him and ruining his attack. Concentration gone, his demonic form faded. He lashed out with both weapons from the floor, and the Arcanine retreated. He needed a second to think. But then a loud voice came across the street.  
"Purity Wave!"

James was having a little trouble. The Aerodactyl was huge, and it's mace was even larger. He was just managing to dodge the tail and block its claws and teeth. Normally, he fought by wearing things down, but something told him this thing wouldn't wear out. He had to attack. He didn't like doing that… He reached inside himself, trying to find his inner strength. It was cold, like reaching through the arctic, but finding it was like seeing the sun for the first time. Burning hot and wonderful. he pulled the energy out, shaping it and using it. There was a flash of light and his skin went brown, almost like rock. A claw raked across him. He felt nothing, swinging both mirrored swords out against the Aerodactyl in a fatal strike across the neck.  
His blades clashed with its armour. They lost. They shouldn't have. The mace swung round, striking him on the side. He went flying. He was lucky his rocky skin hadn't shattered. It faded away from the pain. He had a problem. The voices of the two legendaries cried out together.  
"Purity Wave!"

A wave of bright white light, a wave of gold, red, blue, violet, bright green, every colour, raced across the street. Where it touched the strange pokemon they screeched, like they were in absolute agony, and… something raised up from them, like a shadow. But they couldn't escape from the light pouring from Mew and Celebi. They slowly dissipated, into nothing. The pokemon, however, remained, still mutated, but in their normal colours. Their eyes were… dark, evil. They attacked.

Alan jumped, pushing his own inner power through his feet and leaping over the Kabutops. Sheathing the smaller sword, he concentrated, and a crackle of blue lightning played around the sword. He started to fall, putting the sword underneath him.  
The sword stabbed into the Kabutops' neck, where it wasn't armoured. The lightning crackled through it. It fell to the floor, dead.

Lauren jumped forwards, kicking the Sneasel as she flipped over it. It sprawled onto the ground. It looked injured. She picked an ultra ball from his bag, and threw it. The Sneasel vanished in a burst of red light. She smiled, picking up the strange pokemon.

Sam grabbed his sword with both hands, and swung it as hard as he could, down. It struck the Arcanine's horns, shattering them, and went through the pokemon's head. He pulled his sword out, wiping the blood on some grass.

Alex knew this was his chance. He focussed again, and changed, growing horns, a tail, wings. He stretched out, and breathed fire to the sky. Then at the Girafarig.  
When the fire died out, there was nothing left.

James saw the change in the Aerodactyl. It was struggling to carry his tail. Easy. James span, aiming both blades at the pokemon's neck in almost exactly the same move. The Aerodactyl died instantly, decapitated.

The five were victorious.

"What the hell were they?" said Celebi.  
"I was hoping you knew." muttered Alex.  
"Why don't we ask one of them?" said Lauren.

"Because they're dead, silly!" said Mew, laughing eerily.  
"I beg to differ." said Lauren, smiling, and opening the pokeball.

_What do you think? Next chapter will be a different arc. Please review, flames fed to Ebony and/or a fire type, yadda yadda. I'm trying not to favour Lauren, but Lorn is my house. REVIEW!_


	2. Tales 3: Beginnings 2: Secrets

In lieu of the next arc, which I don't know how to start, here's chapter 2 of Beginnings. Enjoy!

Disclaimer-Still don't own pokemon. Get used to it, I have. I own the characters, not the name Jaster, joint creator of the Blademasters.

Tales of the Blade Chapter 3-Beginnings 2: Secrets

"You _caught_ one?" said Alan.

"Yeah." said Lauren, smiling.  
"How? When I tried the ball exploded!"  
"Should have tried after the Purity Wave." she said. Alan was quiet as Lauren released the pokemon. They got ready their weapons, just in case. The Sneasel, complete with giant claws, materialised. It looked around, it's eyes normal.

"Snea?"

Mew sighed.  
"Let's talk the same, sweeties." She clicks her fingers, and nothing seems to change.

"Well, that was impressive." says Lauren sarcastically.  
"I'll say." says the Sneasel.

"_What_?" says Lauren, quietly, and with a lot of force.

"Or not…" mutters Alex.

"Well." says Alan, first to recover. "Why were you attacking people?" The Sneasel hesitates.  
"I don't know. It's like I saw it all through a black film, I don't know. last thing I remember, I was in the street and a black shadow comes out of the sky and hits me, and then the black film appeared and I wasn't in control. Did I… really hurt those people?" Lauren nodded. The Sneasel bowed down on one knee.  
"I am so sorry. Could I come with you? I have never been bested before, and I was stronger then…" it said. Lauren smiled.  
"Of course. Glad to have you. What's your name?" she said.  
"Tsume. In the ancient language, it means-" said the Sneasel.

"Claw." said James.

"Yep." She grinned, and, standing up, saluted with one very large claw to the entire group. Lauren smiled.

"Do you have any other information that can help us track down these… shadows?"  
"They found me outside the city, to the north." replied Tsume.

"Thank you. Do you mind pokeballs?"  
"No."  
"Then I'll return you." she did.

"Lucky bitch." muttered Sam.  
"Say that again, and I'll carve you a new mouth across your throat." said Lauren, in a pleasant voice. The two had never been close.

"Look, people, we need to work together here." said Alan.  
"Lucky you." said Lauren, turning away. "You get to live another day."  
"One day…" He muttered.  
"One day I'll kill you." said Lauren with a chilling certainty.

There was an awkward silence.

"Umm… am I interrupting?" said Mew, breaking the quiet.  
Everyone was glad that she had spoken.  
"We should go and check out the place where the demons appeared." said Celebi.  
"Demons?" said Alex.  
"I suppose. Do you have a better way of describing them?"  
No-one did.  
"We should go. Celebi is right." said Alan. They started walking.

* * *

"It was here." said Tsume.  
"Thanks." said Lauren, returning her. "So, what now, Pixies?"  
Mew giggled. Celebi growled with annoyance.  
"I wish you'd stop calling us that." he sighed. "Well, look around for anything strange." he said.

They did. Most of them just looked normally. Alan drew his sword, placing it between his hands and sitting down, blade pointed upwards, flat against his face. He reached for his inner strength, and focussed.

"There's something… over there." he said, pointing to a patch of trees.

They walk over. They can all feel it, something dark, scraping against their souls. Evil. They shudder. Then, unwillingly, they walk closer. They find a huge clearing. There are many pokemon there, each pure black, but not mutated to the same extent as the previous five. But it was the thing they were standing around that was the worst thing. A hole in the air. The other side was like space, black, covered in stars, but the feeling of evil, death, pain emanating from it had almost physical force. As they watched, a red spiralling cloud of something crossed the space on the other side. For an instant, a face appeared within it, a face with horns and huge fangs. The cloud stopped, and they heard a voice in their minds.

"**What are you lot doing? Kill them! They killed five of ours!"**

Said the voice. The corrupted pokemon turned as one, and charged at the group.

"Great." said Alex, as they unsheathed their weapons.

"There are too many of them." said Alan. "If they're as strong as the others, we can't beat them. Unless you can use that Purity Wave thing now?"

Celebi shook his head.

"It takes a while to charge." He says, turning into a human, and, from somewhere, drawing a sword. Mew does the same.

The charging pokemon hit the seven fighters. If they are as strong as they fear, the battle won't last long.

It doesn't.

Within seconds, half the pokemon lie dead, attacking with no skill and all brute force making them easy prey. Each one that dies is followed by a shadow rising from it's corpse and shrieking horribly as it dissipates.

As they fought, they were forced closer and closer to the tear.

"They're herding us." said James, with certainty.

Some of them ended up closer than the others.

It was five minutes before they were all dead. Not because they had any skill, but just because there were so many of them.

"Are you all ok?" said Alan.  
"Wonderful." said Lauren.  
"I'm fine." said James quietly.  
"Excellent." said Alex, sarcastically.  
"Great." mutters Sam.  
"Fine." says Mew, wiping blood from her skirt.  
"Same." says Celebi, looking around with distaste at the havoc.

The face in the tear was furious. It roared with anger, furious at their victory. There was a wave of fury that tore through the clearing, a feeling so strong it hurt, and then a great gust of wind, and then silence. The rift closed.

They looked around.  
"Alan?" said James.  
"What?" said Alan.  
"Where's Lauren?" said James.

She was gone.

* * *

_Yeah, I gave up on not giving her a big part. Sorry._


	3. Tales 6: Beginnings 3: Shadows

_Hiya! Back to beginnings for us. I nicked the title from Doctor who. Enjoy!_

From now on.  
"Example." is talking  
**"Example."** is someone whose possessed and has utterly lost control talking.  
_**"Example."**_ is a demon talking.

Disclaimer-See previous chapter. Honestly. It hasn't changed since then, now, has it?

Tales of the Blade Chapter 6-Beginnings 3: The Shadows are Moving

"What!" shouted James. "No!"

But it was true.

They immediately began to look around, but all they found was her belt, complete with both weapons and six pokeballs.

"This is not good. Not good. Mot only is she gone, but she doesn't have any way of defending herself." said Alan.

Sam was smirking.

"What the hell are we going to do?" shouted James.

"There's nothing we can do." said Alan. "She must have been taken through the tear, and it's closed now. There's nothing we can do." he said.

Sam let out a small chuckle.

Everyone stared at him, and then at James.

James punched him. Hard. He fell to the floor.

"Yeah, just because I don't like your girlfriend."

James kicked him in the head.

"You're lucky she is gone. If she knew you said that you'd have got worse than that."

Then he walked away from the group.

"Alan, you're kind of in charge of this. Say something!" appealed Sam.

There was a short silence.

"Hey! James!" shouted Alan.  
"What?"  
"Well done."

* * *

The group were sitting around. They didn't really have anything to do, or the motivation to do it. Mew and Celebi had gone away to check for any more information they could get.

Sam was sitting away from the rest of the group. None of them were talking to him.

"Hey! Hiya!" said mew, bouncing down the hill with a silly grin on her face.  
"What?" said Alan.  
"We found something."  
"Great." said Alan.  
"Oh, don't worry, we'll get your friend back."  
"Yeah?" he said, sarcastically. Mew smiled.

"Pixies promise! Anyway, this town in Orre, it's emanating not very nice thoughts."  
"We need to do something about it." said Celebi, teleporting in.  
Alan sighed.  
"Fine. Guys? We need to go. In Orre, you're place, Alex." Alex nodded.  
"Hey, I had an idea." said Mew excitedly.  
"What?" said Celebi.  
"Well, we asked that Sneasel if she knew anything about the demons, but we only asked about where the demons were, not what they want or anything."  
There was a pause.  
"Good point." said Alan. "James, can you pass me Tsume's pokeball?"  
James passed the ultra ball to him. Alan opened it.  
"Hi!" she said. "What do you want?" she looked around. "Where's Miss Lauren?"  
"The demons have her." said James bitterly.  
"Oh no…" said Tsume. "Oh no, oh no. This is really bad."  
"I'll say." said Alan.  
"We want to know everything you can tell us about the demon-shadow things."  
Tsume nodded.  
"Not much. Um… they don't come from here. They come from another world, and they can't exist in this one without finding a host. See, there is too much happiness in this world. They feed of despair and evil. And that's why they're here; they want to feed off a world ripe with unhappiness, like ours so easily could be. I don't know why they'd want Miss Lauren…" Alan nodded.  
"Thanks. You've been a great help." said Celebi. James returned Tsume to her pokeball.  
"So, how does that help?" said Celebi.  
"Well, I know one thing." said James, unhappily.  
"What?" said Alan.  
"That explains why they want Lauren. They want a strong host."

* * *

"What do you want?" spat Lauren at the figure in a shadows.  
"You. Or, to be exact, your body." he said.  
"I will never allow one of your kind to use me."  
"Good." said the figure. "I hate it when people give in easily."  
"If I was loose…" threatened Lauren.  
"Yes, but you're not." said the figure. "And I'm glad we managed to get you. The prisoner being a girl makes this all so much more… fun."

The defiance drained from Lauren's face, replaced by disgust, and maybe a little fear.

"I see you understand what I mean."

Lauren tried to think of something witty to say. She failed. Instead, she said something very short, very vulgar, and very rude.

The figure laughed.

"You'll be begging for the demon soon." he said. "An end to the pain."

* * *

_Sigh. Why am I always mean to my favourite characters? Oh well. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Enjoy, and review, or I set Ellen, Gabrielle and Ebony on you._


	4. Tales 10: Beginnings 4: Knowledge

_Now we're back to Beginnings. Enjoy!_

Disclaimer-Shock Horror, I _still _don't own pokemon.

Previous Chapter Synopsis-Lauren has been captured, presumably by the demons, and is being tortured. Tsume, Lauren's Sneasel, told the group everything she knew about the demons. Mew and Celebi have located another place to attack, and Mew has promised that they will find Lauren again.

Tales of the Blade Chapter 10-Beginnings 4-Knowledge and Ignorance

"You should not have told them that…" muttered Celebi, so only Mew could hear him. "Messing with something this important is dangerous. Stick to the Prophecy."  
"Aw, but where's the fun if you just follow a pre-laid plan?" she shot back.  
Celebi sighed, and shook his head in disbelief.

* * *

"So…how far is this place?" asked Alan.  
"Only a couple of minutes away." Said Celebi. He and Mew had disabled their human forms a while ago, floating being easier and more natural to them.  
"It's there." He finished, pointing.

It was huge. More a Fortress than a newly built secret hideout.  
"We have to get in there?" asked Alan.  
"Yeps!" said Mew, laughing.  
"Yes." Said Celebi. "But…Lauren's in there."  
"Are you sure?" asked Alan.  
"Pretty sure." Answered Celebi.  
"Then we've got to get in." said James. "Wait…do you know how this turns out? Do we get in?" he asked.  
Celebi hesitated, before answering.  
"Yes, we get in."  
There was a short silence.  
"Do we get out again? All of us? With Lauren?" James asked, slowly.

Celebi hesitated again.  
"Not all of you. James, if Lauren gets out, as herself, you don't."

This time there was dead silence. No noise, save that of the light breeze in the desert.  
"Are you sure you want to go?" asked Celebi, softly.  
"If you need to ask, you don't know me." Said James, quietly, his face pale.

* * *

"Do we go quietly? Sneak in? Or do we fight our way in?" said Alan.  
"Fighting is always the most fun way." Said Sam.  
"Secrecy is always more effective." Said Alex.  
They looked at each other, Sam with undisguised disgust, Alex showing absolutely no interest at all.  
"Why don't we split up?" asked Mew, doing a few loops in the air. "Me, Sam and Alan can go in the front, and Alex, James and Celebi can sneak in." she said, landing and changing back into her human disguise.

Celebi, already in human form, looked around.  
"Well, does that sound like a good plan?"

There were murmurs of assent from each of them.  
"Well then. Ok, there are two main places Lauren is likely to be. There are two prison blocks, at opposite ends of the facility. We'll go eastern block; you go for the northern one. It's slightly closer, as well." Said Celebi.  
They nodded.  
"Lets go. If you get to your objective and she isn't there, head for the other. I have a couple of maps that I made. I'll take one, Alan, you have the other. Good luck." Finished Celebi. He motioned to Alex and James, and they followed him as they started down towards the building.

* * *

"I give!" sobbed Lauren.  
The figure smiled, and shouted, red eyes glinting in the half-darkness.  
"Prepare _immediately._"  
One of the shadowy figures guarding the room nodded, and left.

The figure smiled.  
"I knew you'd see it our way eventually."

* * *

Mew, Alan and Sam were walking casually up to the gate, not even trying to be stealthy. As he always was when he wasn't fighting, Sam was complaining.  
"Why do we get the pink kitten girl anyway?"  
"This is why!" chirped the kitten goddess in response as she held out her hands, and stopped walking a few metres from the gate.  
There was a noise like the crackle of lightning, and a smell like ozone, as her hands started to glow pink.

And then a wave of pink energy shot out from them, growing large as it hurtled towards the fortress.

With a crack like thunder, it struck the gates, huge, solid metal things.

They shattered into so many fragments of metal, crashing downwards onto the ground. The towers on each side of the gate collapsed, without anything to hold their weight. The area above the gates fell in, causing more havoc.

Mew laughed, and clapped her hands in triumph.  
Sam just mumbled, as the first guards ran towards them, as he unslung his sword,  
"I could have done that."

* * *

"Right…so how do we get in?" said Celebi.  
James stared at him.  
"You don't have a plan?"  
"No, you're the experts."  
"Both of you be quiet." said Alex. "This is meant to be a stealth mission."

He thought for a second.  
"Take my hand." He said.

They stared at him.

"Just do it." said Alex, sighing.  
They did.

Alex concentrated, breathing in deeply, and started to walk towards the wall, dragging them with him.

They winced as they hit the wall.

And gasped as they walked through it.

It was a thick wall. Metres, in fact, but they got through.

They noticed that Alex was sweating, holding their hands very tightly. As soon as they were free of the wall, he collapsed.

Celebi knelt down to him.  
"Recover." he said, putting one hand on his chest.

Alex opened his eyes.  
"Thanks… I didn't think it would be that thick. Are we close?" he asked, coughing slightly.  
"Well… put it this way." said Celebi, starting to smile. "After that stunt… the block is about five metres away, through THAT door."

* * *

"Shame we have to kill them." said Mew, brightly, as she slashed through a pair of guards with a blade of psychic energy.  
Sam disagreed, but he didn't argue, instead focussing on cutting through the guards who came at him, one by one.  
Alan decided he might as well answer.  
"Because they're evil?" he suggested, concentrating, and channelling a bolt of lightning through his sword at the coming guards. They were incinerated.  
"Well, yeah, but I wish we didn't have to kill them…" said Mew sadly, as she destroyed the last attackers with a psychic pulse.

"In then?" said Alan.  
"Yep!" said Mew, her happy mood restored instantly.

It was starting to get on Sam's nerves.

* * *

"Are you ready to move?" asked Celebi.  
"Yeah." said Alex. To prove it, he stood up.  
Celebi nodded, and they moved to the door, moving into the eastern prison block.

They looked around, but there were hundreds of cells, and slightly larger rooms, better conditions but not exactly hotels, and they were all around a large raised area, like a stage.

It had a door in it, leading back into the rest of the building.

It didn't take that long for the three to know she wasn't in any of the cells, nor the rooms. No-one seemed to be.

They gathered below the stage, planning what to do next.  
"We said we'd go to the other end."  
"What if she's not there either?" asked James, slightly worried.  
"Relax." said Celebi. "She's in this building. I know that. And it's not where we go that's a problem, but how?"  
"We should go through that door. It'll be fastest. It's not worth trying the same trick to get out then in again. Besides, I'm not sure if I could." said Alex.

That was one of the longest speeches James had ever heard him say.

A door opened. The one above them.

Footsteps.

Someone landed maybe five metres in front of them, having jumped from the stage.

They were alone, wearing a cloak with a hood, obscuring their face.

The figure straightened up, and turned around. It was a woman, but her face was shrouded in darkness.

"Who are you?" asked James.  
"What, you don't recognise me?" asked the woman.

She put down the hood.

"Lauren?" gasped James.

"Not quite." said Lauren, red eyes twinkling.

_Hehe. Don't worry, I'll write the next one soon. Very soon, in fact. Probably next.  
Oh, and the title will be explained next Beginnings._


End file.
